GDC Acknowledges 'Climate of Fear' Among Registrants
- Details
- Published: Monday, 02 June 2025 07:42
- Written by Peter Ingle
- Hits: 1296
The GDC have been listening to the profession, if a news feature on their website accurately reflects current thinking at our regulator. In an acknowledgement that would have been unimaginable not long ago, the piece goes as far as referring to, “the current climate of fear within dentistry.”
The news item comes as the GDC launch a consultation on their new Corporate Strategy for 2026-2028, with the intention of modernising regulation.
Titled ‘Trusted and Effective: A Strategy for Dental Regulation’, it proposes a vision of "good oral health for all" and outlines how the GDC will modernise their approach to regulation over the next three years, with outcomes planned through to 2030.
Mindful of the need to get dental team numbers up, part of the strategy addresses the significant increase in internationally qualified dental professionals required to join the UK workforce. With only 53% of newly registered dentists in 2024 being UK-trained, it is a matter of urgency for the DHSC that the GDC develops a more accessible framework for international registration.
The GDC hope to modernise their registration and renewal processes with improved and more user-centred digital services. The GDC are also grappling with the miserable reputation of their Fitness to Practise process (FtP). It intends to streamline investigations so they are more proportionate and timelier. At some point the GDC has expanded its remit from regulation, and it now sees a major role in, “working collaboratively with the sector to address challenges around access to dental services, in particular NHS provision.”
The most startling sentence in the GDC statement must be: “The strategy also focuses on the current climate of fear within dentistry, with research showing dental professionals’ perceptions of the GDC decline sharply after qualification.” There is a commitment to reducing the negative unintended impacts of fitness to practise processes on mental health and wellbeing, while maintaining robust public protection.
Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the GDC, who will be stepping down in September 2025 said: “With the launch of our public consultation today, we’re keen to receive feedback from dental professionals, stakeholders and partners over the next three months, as this important feedback will shape the final decisions that the Council will take in the Autumn.”
“Our public protection role remains the same, but we are proposing that we think more broadly about what that means when faced with challenges such as access to NHS dentistry and growing oral health inequalities. We cannot realise our vision of good oral health for all alone, but we can play a key role in creating the environment in which there are more dental professionals equipped to deliver the care that people need."
Tom Whiting, the recently arrived Chief Executive and Registrar of the GDC appears to have been listening to registrants concerns. He said: "The invaluable feedback we hear from dental professionals when we visit dental settings and meet at events is about fear and the need to modernise and reform. We have listened, and addressing these priorities is at the centre of our proposals.”
The strategy incorporates financial planning over five years, with the aim to ensure stability and affordability. Under these proposals, the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) would return broadly to 2023 levels in 2026. Any subsequent increases would be capped at the Consumer Price Index, with the GDC committing to deliver 7% efficiency savings over five years, in addition to further savings from modernising registration processes and more effective use of estates.The strategy also sets out to introduce updated values that will drive change across the organisation: being respectful, transparent, inclusive and purposeful. The regulator is aiming to “embody our values by 2030.”
The consultation on the strategy is now open.
========
For more news like this delivered to your phone, please join the GDPUK news channel on WhatsApp
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report
My comments